Blog

This coming May 23rd and 24th, over 5,000 participants are expected to attend the first World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey. Heads of state, government leaders, as well representatives from the private sector, multi-lateral organizations, youth, civil society, and the NGO community, including Caritas Internationalis, of which Development and Peace is a member, will take part in this meeting.

There is no question that the extreme weather being caused by climate change is impacting the lives of small family farmers and their ability to grow food. Just a few weeks ago in the Philippines, 6,000 farmers blocked a portion of a main highway to demand government assistance after drought hit hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland. The protest degenerated, farmers threw rocks and police responded with force. One farmer was killed, and dozens of others, both farmers and police officers, were wounded in the confrontation.

This year, Earth Day is being marked by a very special event: the signing ceremony of the Paris Agreement. It is expected that more than 170 countries will sign the agreement on this opening day, which will be a record.

Thiramaya is 103-years-old and lives in Thokarpa-7, Sindhupalchowk in Nepal. One morning, she suddenly heard a loud noise that she believed to be a helicopter passing low over her home – which was something unusual. She can’t walk on her own, and normally people have to carry her from one place to another, but that day she managed to limp outside to so she could see the helicopter. This was when her house collapsed and she realized she had survived an earthquake.

On March 3, 2016, the first ministers' conference, organized by the Prime Minister, will be held in Vancouver to discuss the future climate policies of Canada. This meeting provides an opportunity for the government to honour the commitments it made during COP21 in Paris, in December, 2015.

Two months after the COP 21 climate talks in Paris, where countries agreed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in the German city of Bonn, the G8 nations are pressed to increase their contributions to the Green Climate Fund in order to finance mitigation and adaptation projects in the particularly vulnerable nations of the Global South.